[Tatara-hama Minami — POV]

“Then I hereby call to order the First-Year Class 2 Temporary Girls’ Class Representative Committee.”

When I looked out over everyone from the teacher’s desk, I could see they were all watching me with serious expressions.

Good, it seems everyone’s fired up.

“During the class rep selection earlier, we all, myself included, showed something rather disgraceful. However, now that I’ve been entrusted with the important role of this class’s representative, I intend to see it through, even at the cost of my life and my work–life balance. I look forward to working with you all.”

When I bowed my head, applause rose from the class.

For now at least, everyone seemed to accept me as the girls’ class rep and I felt relieved.

“Now then, onto today’s agenda. The reason we’re holding this meeting without Tachibana-kun is that I would first like everyone to frankly share your impressions of him. If you have something you’d like to say, please raise your hand.”

“““““““Me me me me me!”””””””

Almost every girl in class raised her hand.

At that point there was no point even using a show-of-hands system…

“Since everyone clearly has a lot to say, let’s go in attendance number order and have each person share their opinion. Ah and please keep it within one minute each.”

“Then I’ll go first! Tachibana-kun, unlike other boys, doesn’t ignore us or hit us and on top of that he’s kind and—”

““““Yeah, yeah.””””

After that, it turned into nothing but time spent listing Tachibana-kun’s good points and everyone agreeing with them.

I have to say, limiting each person to a minute on the spur of the moment was a real clutch play on my part, or the discussion would’ve dragged on forever.

Even so, everyone looked frustrated that they couldn’t say everything they wanted within a minute.

“Then lastly, Kuruwa-san, go ahead.”

It’s only been a few days since we enrolled and seats are arranged mostly in attendance number order, but because of her exceptional height, Kuruwa-san alone is an exception and sits in the very back by the aisle.

“……”

“Kuruwa-san? If you don’t have anything in particular you’d like to say, that’s fine.”

She stood up but stayed silent, so I called out to her.

Being last, maybe there was simply nothing left to say about how wonderful Tachibana-kun is.

“Um…”

In a voice far too small for that big body of hers, Kuruwa-san began to speak.

“I like how he treated someone as huge as me as a girl, properly calling me cute…”

Poking her fingers together, she spoke shyly yet straightforwardly about her feelings and all of us girls felt our hearts flutter at the gap with her usual “girl boss” persona.

This Kuruwa-san might be a pretty formidable rival.

“Now, we’ll set our love for Tachibana-kun aside for the moment and talk about the class’s direction going forward.”

Since the groundwork was laid, I moved on to the next agenda item.

“Yes yes!”

“Yes, go ahead… Mito-san.”

My longtime friend, who’d shot her hand up first, but as class rep I called her by her family name so I could treat everyone fairly.

“Right. So, we in Class 2 are blessed to have such a wonderful Tachibana-kun, but our biggest concern right now is the Class Replacement Match.”

As expected of Erina-chan.

She immediately pointed out the very thing I’d wanted to address first.

“That’s the real issue… I mean, why is a wonderful boy like Tachibana-kun assigned to Class 2 instead of Class 1 in the first place?”

“The boy in Class 1… He did have a cute face and seemed pretty friendly though.”

“Honestly, that shota look of his hits certain tastes really hard…”

“So you’re saying he was chosen for looks?”

“No no. Personally I think Tachibana-kun is overwhelmingly more handsome, okay? Saying it like he ‘lost’ is kind of rude to Tachibana-kun, don’t you think? Don’t you think?”

I do read lewd manga with cute shota boys as one of my genres, but at this point my absolute favorite genre is “Tachibana-kun and nothing else,” okay?

“Class rep… you’re talking fast because you’re mad.”

“Where’d the tongue-tied character go?”

Oh no, that’s not good.

As class rep I’m supposed to calmly run the meeting, not get emotional.

“Ahem. Anyway, back to the topic. As you know, if Class 3 challenges us to a Class Replacement Match, we upper-class students can’t refuse.”

This Class Replacement Match is a safety net for the lower-ranked classes.

If you end up in a low-ranked class and get assigned a boy who barely ever shows up to school, of course, frustration builds up in that class.

They worked so hard to pass the highly competitive entrance exam and get into the co-ed Honey Academy and yet if they can’t interact with boys, it’s no wonder the lower classes start to go rotten.

To those girls, this system is like a spider’s thread dropped down from heaven.

That is the Class Replacement Match.

It’s a system where, at set intervals, a class can challenge the adjacent class to a Replacement Match.

If the lower class wins, their class rank is swapped and they become the higher class. The only exception is the boys, who stay in their original classroom. In other words, the boys alone are exchanged and “upgraded,” so to speak.

However, only adjacent classes are eligible, so for example, the bottom-ranked Class 5 can’t suddenly challenge Class 1. You can only rank up one step at a time.

This gives the lower classes the motivation to think, “We still have a chance to get closer to wonderful boys too,” and it also puts pressure on the upper classes not to get complacent and neglect their self-improvement, or else their treasure will be taken away.

It’s honestly a pretty nasty system, isn’t it?

“What kind of boy is in Class 3?”

“He’s only shown up once so far, but apparently he has some issues and the girls in Class 3 aren’t happy about it.”

“When I tried asking one of the girls in Class 3 about their boy, she made a really bitter face…”

“Ah, that sounds like…”

I feel bad speaking ill of another class’s boy, but I’m guessing he’s a few tiers below Tachibana-kun.

“So it’s basically guaranteed that Class 3 will eventually challenge Class 2 to a Replacement Match…”

“There’s no way we can hide Tachibana-kun forever… The girls in Class 3 are definitely going to find out about him.”

The biggest topic of conversation at a co-ed school is, of course, the boys.

Even for boys who rarely come to school, the girls will savor any tiny bit of gossip about them like they’re chewing on it.

At a school full of girls starved for boy talk, there is no way they’ll overlook someone as wonderful as Tachibana-kun.

“One of my senpai from middle school already asked me about him. She said that when they happened to pass by each other in the hallway, he smiled at her. She’d already decided to marry him, so I hurriedly told her, ‘He’s like that with everyone.’”

“So he’s already a rumor among upperclassmen after just a few days…”

“It’s a headache for us, but that kind and indiscriminate sweetness toward all girls is exactly one of Tachibana-kun’s good points.”

““““Yeah, yeah.””””

That got the biggest nod of agreement from everyone in Class 2 today.

“As class rep, my suggestion is this: I want Tachibana-kun to be free. Regardless of how the Replacement Match turns out, I want Class 2 to be a place he can feel comfortable in.”

I don’t want to make him feel trapped just for our selfish desires.

His charm is going to get exposed to the surrounding classes sooner or later anyway.

Well, not that he needs anyone’s permission to be free.

“I agree with Class Rep Tatara-hama!”

“Me too!”

Voices of agreement rose from around the classroom.

Thank goodness.

“Thank you. To sum up today, until the next Replacement Match, each of us needs to sharpen our own blades. If we just lose ourselves in swooning over Tachibana-kun, we’ll have him stolen right out from under us.”

““““Got it!””””

I was relieved.

So soon after enrollment, we were able to share a major class goal and unite the class.

This way, we won’t be left behind in the Boys’ Replacement Match.

And that’s all because Tachibana-kun is such a wonderful boy.

Thinking that, I silently pictured him in my mind, even though he wasn’t here.

“Hey, this is just a hypothetical, but…”

“What is it, Mito-san?”

Just as the Temporary Girls’ Class Representative Committee was about to wrap up for the day, Erina-chan raised her hand a bit hesitantly, so as chair I gave her permission to speak.

“I just checked the rules for the Class Replacement Match on the school tablet. The wording says, ‘You may challenge an ad-ja-cent class to a Boys’ Replacement Match.’”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I nodded at her pained expression and urged her to continue.

“So doesn’t that mean… it could also be interpreted as allowing Class 1 to challenge the lower-ranked Class 2 to a Boys’ Replacement Match?”

““““………………””””

Class 2 fell silent like someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water on us right when we’d decided to unite and work hard together.

“N-no way… with how proud Class 1 is, they wouldn’t do that…”

“The original idea was for lower classes stuck with unpopular boys to steal better boys from upper classes as a form of revolt… r-right?”

“No way, no way… there’s no way, right?”

In the end, we didn’t reach a conclusion and since there was no point worrying about it now, we ended the discussion there.

But at the time, none of us realized that the issue with Class 1 would remain stuck in our hearts like a splinter that would never come out.